Hello from Gleno!
Last week, I promised you greenery galore, in celebration of the lush, verdant delights of the Irish summer!

Our summer here is, well, a little temperamental. On any given day, you could head out with an umbrella, a woolly jumper and sunglasses, and odds are you’ll have the chance to use all of them before you get back home. The upside of this is that, unless something really weird (like a fortnight of hot, dry weather) happens, the countryside is awash with greens all summer long. But don’t take my word for it! Paddy and Plunkett – who themselves sport rather fetching moss-coloured complexions – have gone to the ends of the earth the island to bring you some quality leafy goodness today!

They’re starting out in the pretty little village of Gleno (sometimes written as Glenoe) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Although the glen and waterfall at Gleno lie a little south of the bigger, more famous Glens of Antrim, they’re really beautiful, especially at this time of year – plus they’re a bit removed from the crowds of visitors who head to the Causeway Coast during tourist season! But before we head off for a look, let’s check out those houses, which are also pleasantly in keeping with our chosen colour palette!
The street here is pretty steep, but the houses work with it…
…And the boys even got to meet this very chilled-out local resident as they puffed their way up the hill!
Oh, and just in case you thought this place was a folk park or film set…
Nope! Just a regular street full of regular cars!

But let’s press on to the Glen, shall we? The boys were pretty excited to visit the waterfall… Especially Paddy, who had seen this sign on the way up!
For those of you reading this on a teeny phone screen, he’s spotted an ad for a canyoning tour of the glen with Climb NI. Paddy is, of course, sold.
“Plunkett! PLUUUUUUNKEEEEEETT! We can climb on the waterfall!”

Unfortunately, I’d need to kit the lads out with the proper gear before they’ll be allowed to dive into this particular adventure. So paws stayed dry this time around – did anyone else just hear Plunkett heave an audible sigh of relief? And although he really would rather have been scrabbling over mossy rocks to reach the top (or imitating his favourite shampoo commercials in the plunge pool at the bottom), Paddy was still pretty happy with a view of the waterfall from further back.
It’s also worth taking a closer look at the water in this river…
Yes, it’s brown! This is a common enough sight in Co. Antrim, thanks to runoff from peat bogs in the mountains upstream. But the colour had Plunkett thinking about stopping for a nice cup of tea. Quick, distract him with…
… A tree growing sideways!

This beech tree took a tumble many years ago, but it’s still alive and thriving… Albeit from a horizontal position. And then Paddy made a discovery…“You’ll want to see what’s on the other side of this hill, Plunkett!”
He was right… Finding a quaint little church tucked away in the trees a little further along absolutely made Plunkett’s day!Then, on the walk back through the glen, it seemed like even the sunlight was coming through green…See you again soon, lads!
We’ll be back next week with more monster fun! In the meantime, did you see the new-look BeastieBlog yet? If you came here from an email or through the Reader, you can still take a sneaky peek from here! I’d love to know what you think, so don’t be shy – have your say in the comments below!

Thanks, Laura! I’ve been having fun catching up with your road trip tales too! Northern Ireland is actually seriously beautiful in places – there’s so much more to the Antrim coast than the Giant’s Causeway 😀

I massively regret that we never made it to Ireland for a holiday. It’s ridiculous since we could see it from the bottom of the peninsula. We were waiting for the kids to be older and then – bam! – we emigrated. Maybe we’ll fit it in one time when we return to see family in the U.K.

This is certainly a blog post of many colors. We’ve got brown here in Portland right now, but what’s that other color? Green? I think I recall green. Sigh. Gleno looks so lovely, although I wonder how many people have tumbled down that steep street. Thanks for the tour P&P!

Cheers, Tammie! Yes, fortunately the boys seem to have resisted the siren call of human-sized beers on this occasion, or the steep streets of Gleno might have posed a bit more of a problem. Hope your garden is staying reasonably green despite the PDX heatwave’s best attempts to turn it into a frazzled wasteland!

Some plants have indeed become a bit crispy in my garden. I guess I could go buy some green spray paint to Gleno-fy them! I hope if there’s a pub on that street it’s at the top…with a doctor’s office at the bottom (town planning at its finest).

Ha! Yes, rolling home from the pub is the dream… Better again if you can convince a family member to stick out a board or something at the front door so you don’t roll too far! As for your plants, “Gleno Green” is the Pantone Colour of the Year for 2018, so you’d better get to your hardware store for your spray paint before they sell out! 😉

Beautiful photos. 🙂 This summer was a ‘stay-cation’ for me, so I can’t get enough of the lads’ adventures and the abundant greenery. I love the side-ways tree! I’d guess that it must have some kind of magical power! And I’m digging the slanted houses on the slanted road (do you figure the interiors are slanted as well?). 😉 Cheers.

Ha! I hope so… And all the furniture too! 😀 I’m glad you’re enjoying your armchair travels with Paddy and Plunkett, hopefully you’ll get a chance to get away somewhere yourself before the year is out! Thanks, Shirley 😀